Just Another Traveler...
by funtime vash
Summary: Short introspective Vash fic with a surprise guest at the end... Set before the insurance girls.


Just another lonely traveler...  
Introspective, angsty Vash fic with a surprise visitor at the end... Some spoilers for his past... Takes place before the insurance girls.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The tall, slender blond glanced down the road, yellow lenses flashing. He tried to flag down a passing car, but it rumbled past the red-coated outlaw. With a sigh, he readjusted his bag and continued walking.  
  
/He's probably better off never having met me./  
  
Vash was feeling despondent. Yet another trail to his brother had grown cold. He'd been certain this time, but then, he'd been certain every time. Knives still escaped him.  
  
Thirst finally got the better of him and he drained the rest of his canteen. Slipping it back into his pack when he was done.  
  
"Well, that's the last of it..." he said out loud.  
  
His voice was not what most people expected. It was a pleasant voice, cheerful, but with a slight, barely perceptible tremble as though he was ready to burst into tears at any moment, along with a definite tendency towards whininess.  
  
Of course, that, like his mood, his expressions, his attitude, his entire personality, in fact, was in a constant state of flux. Vash the stampede had worn so many masks throughout his long life that he wasn't sure who he was underneath them anymore. He couldn't say for certain that he'd ever known.  
  
The day stretched out before him, his destination a mystery. He simply traveled, enjoying the brief relationships he formed while on the road, mourning their passing when they were gone. It was a pleasant experience at times, though his souls weren't really designed for the solitude constantly thrust upon him. He wasn't a loner by nature, actually preferring to be more of a follower then a leader. Knives was the commanding one, the manipulative one, the dominant brother Vash had always turned to as a child. Occasionally, he wondered if their adoptive mother could have done anything differently to keep from driving them apart, but he held Rem in such high regard that he couldn't think of anything she could've done differently. Ram had achieved a mythical quality in his heart, the ideal of her grander then anyone could ever hope to live up to.  
  
He didn't know the distance to the next town, but he found he didn't care, recklessness a symptom of his transient depressions. Not many people would set out to walk an unknown number of iles in the desert heart with only a single canteen of water, but Vash took his immortality for granted. Over 120 years of life had only reinforced the belief.  
  
As morning turned to afternoon without passing another traveler, Vash began to worry. He was beginning to regret his decision to leave the last town so ill prepared, but there hadn't been much of a choice on his part. They'd chased him out after he'd accidentally blown up the courthouse while trying to escape yet another annoying bounty hunter. The angry shouts of the townspeople still rang in his ears. They'd hated him, cursed him, tearing yet another gash on his soul. If he cared a little less, he wouldn't get hurt so much, but then, he wouldn't be Vash, he wouldn't be Rem's favorite.  
  
"Myaa..."  
  
Spinning around smoothly, he faced a mewling black kitten.  
  
"Where'd you come from?" he asked softly, bending down to pick up the creature gingerly.  
  
The smile that appeared across his face as the cat began to purr and nibble at his gloved hands was full of tenderness.  
  
"How'd you end up here all by yourself?" Vash asked, glancing up and down the road. The cat was by itself, a loner, just like him.  
  
"Myaaa," the tiny thing rubbed against his hand desperately.  
  
"Aww..." Vash's eyes suddenly became liquid and shiny, "Do you want to stay with me?"  
  
It only purred in response.  
  
"Kuroneko. That's a great name," he whispered. A friend from long ago had once named an identical cat the same thing. Vash used the name whenever he came across a feline, though he had no idea what it meant.  
  
"Myaaa."  
  
He laughed a little, spirits lifted, and took Kuroneko along with him. An hour later, a passing car picked both of them up. That night, kitten hidden safely in one of the pockets in his coat, he'd rented a room for the night.  
  
"Do you want to come with me to get something to eat?" Vash hadn't stopped talking to the poor cat once since he'd found it.  
  
Kuroneko, meanwhile, was becoming quite annoyed with his companions constant idiotic babbling. It batted at Vash's outstretched hand.  
  
Holding his arm close, a hurt expression on his face, he left the cat on the bed and went to buy some provisions.  
  
The room was empty when he returned, of course.  
  
With a sigh, the blond outlaw, who was much less despondent now then he'd been earlier that day, put down his bag of groceries. His heart felt a little lighter, his aquamarine eyes a little less weary, less pained.  
  
He shook his head as he removed his coat, "That's the third one this month."  



End file.
